SB 971

Bill Subjects

Abstract

Existing law, the Urban Water Management Planning Act, requires every public and private urban water supplier that directly or indirectly provides water for municipal purposes to prepare and adopt an urban water management plan. The act requires an urban water management plan to include a water shortage contingency plan, as provided. Existing law required the Department of Water Resources, in consultation with the State Water Resources Control Board and other relevant state and local agencies and stakeholders, to use available data to identify, no later than January 1, 2020, small water suppliers and rural communities that may be at risk of drought and water shortage vulnerability. Existing law required the department, in consultation with the state board, to propose to the Governor and the Legislature, by January 1, 2020, recommendations and guidance relating to the development and implementation of countywide drought and water shortage contingency plans to address the planning needs of small water suppliers and rural communities, as provided. This bill would require a small water supplier, as defined, with 1,000 to 2,999 service connections, inclusive, to prepare and adopt a small water supplier water shortage contingency plan that consists of specified elements. The bill would require a small water supplier with 15 to 999 service connections, inclusive, to take specified actions related to water shortage planning and response. The bill would require small water suppliers to provide to the public, and to report, the plan and specified water shortage planning information, as prescribed. This bill would require a county at risk of drought or water shortage, as determined by the department and the state board, to take specified actions related to water shortage planning and response, including, among other actions, including drought and water shortage planning information in the county's existing planning processes and establishing a county drought and water shortage task force. By imposing additional duties on counties, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the department, the state board, the Office of Emergency Services, or a relevant state agency to take specified actions to support a county's implementation of these provisions. This bill would impose requirements on the department and the state board to support implementation of the recommendations of the department's County Drought and Advisory Group, including requiring the department to maintain its drought and water shortage risk vulnerability tool for small water suppliers and rural communities, requiring the state board to identify state small water systems, small water suppliers and rural communities, and concentrations of domestic wells in California through a data system similar to the department's data system for public water systems, and requiring the department, in consultation with the state board and relevant state agencies, to establish a standing interagency drought and water shortage task force, as prescribed. The bill would require a county drought and water shortage task force and the interagency drought and water shortage task force to include, among other representatives, representatives from local governments. By imposing additional requirements on local governments, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.